Report: NFL 'Close' to Signing New 10-Year TV Contracts; Amazon Favorite for TNF

The NFL is reportedly close to negotiating new deals with its television and streaming partners, according to a report from Peter King of Pro Football Talk. 

Per that report, CBS, Fox and ESPN are likely to remain the three major broadcasters of NFL games, with Amazon potentially entering the fray as a streaming partner:

"The NFL is close—'within a month,' one source told me at the Super Bowl—to inking new 10-year contracts with its network partners that could result in an aggregate increase of 70 to 100 percent in rights fees from the last contract. The new contract may not be a revolution; I'm hearing most major packages will likely remain with their current broadcast partners, with the exception of a possible streaming package on Thursday nights. Amazon is the favorite there. Whether the Thursday night package, if streamed, would include a cable element like NFL Network, or simply be telecast on local channels of the two participating teams, is something I don't know.

"I'm also hearing ESPN could be an ESPN/ABC simulcast, and also could be the beneficiary of additional flexing for part of the Monday night package, if ESPN indeed wins Mondays."  

King added that ESPN is hoping to get more out of its Monday Night Football package considering it "pays more for the games and for significant other highlights and programming elements than the other networks."

One way to improve the schedule would be allowing ESPN to flex out of a weaker matchup later in the season for a stronger game, which NBC is allowed to do with its Sunday Night Football deal, as King noted.

ESPN also had just one playoff game this season. CBS, Fox and NBC rotate Super Bowl rights.

Amazon partnered with the NFL in 2020, streaming 11 Thursday Night Football matchups this past season on Amazon Prime. It also partnered with a number of Twitch streamers to co-stream the event on that platform.

ESPN's contract with the NFL expires after the 2021 season, while CBS, Fox and NBC are under contract through the 2022 campaign, per King.